Joe Chin

Who reads this shit anyway?!

Happy Fathers Day all you fathers out there.

Still kicking those tires and lighting fires. Besides my poor french grammar and etiquette I have learned a few things since I've been in France.

• How to start a fire with wood, matches, and a sheet of cardboard. This is as close to roughing it as I'm willing to get. I've grown up on propane grills and MatchLight briquettes, I thought that was easy, this is a piece of cake. Sometimes when I'm at a party or BBQ I get this urge to push the grillmaster out the way and show 'em how a real man gets the job done. :-P
  
• Driving in France: they have street signs, they have code of conducts, they even have someone directing traffic. It doesn't matter. The horn solves everything. Pedestrians in the way? Honk, it doesn't matter who has the right of way.
  

Mom peeped the website the other day. "You know, you should be careful what you write on your website someone might actually read it," she says. But whats the point of having a website if you can't make fun of yourself, your friends, and random internet shit. Besides, I could go on about random mundane things but isn't much more enjoyable to see if Joe is going to make it.

Now as far as France is concerned, besides the 35-hour work week my latest pet peeve is the crappy toilet design. Maybe they aren't all bad, but the ones I've used so far (it's a lot, me and french fromage aren't agreeing right now) suck ass. Whats the point of having water conserving toilets if you gotta flush thrice. On top of that you get 2 buttons, so you press one and wait, then figure what the hell and press the other. They both do the same damn thing. No indicator whatsoever as why you should press one or the other. I know they are for #1 and #2 so why not just write it on there.

Trendy appliances

I admit, I'm a gadgaholic. If it was made in China, Japan, or South Korea I've probably played, sold, or bought one. I don't claim to have the biggest collection of electronic doohickies, but everyone knows where to go once I start the annual spring-cleaning.

This morning boingboing posts a blog from Which? magazine (UK) that Dyson vacuums break more often than other vacuums. This doesn't surprise me. I have one. I can take it apart in five minutes, but it works so good... I've never had so much fun doing a chore. Watching the dirt swirl around in the bin is Zen and rewarding.

Damned if it breaks, I'm keeping this one forever.